550 REPORT— 1878. 



brated Classes, especially the one of which I shall now speak, it has only extended! 

 and reformed it. 



In taking the Systema Natures of Linnaeus, the comparison is certainly carried 

 hack somewhat beyond the hundred years which have elapsed since his death, and 

 the brilliant contributions to the knowledge of the Mammalia of Buffon and 

 Daubenton just then beginning 1 to be known, and the systematic compilation of 

 Erxleben (published in 1777), are ignored; but for the present purpose, especially 

 considering the limited time at my disposal, it will be best not to go beyond the 

 actual text of the work in question. 



Before considering systematically the different groups into which Linnaeus 

 divides the class, I must remark in passing upon what is the greatest, and indeed 

 most marvellous difference between the knowledge of Zoology of our time and that 

 of Linnaeus. Now we know that the animals at present existing upon the earth 

 are merely the survivors of an immensity of others, different in form, characters, 

 and mode of life, which have peopled the earth through vast ages of time, and 

 to which numerically our existing forms are but infinitesimally small, and that the 

 knowledge we possess of an immense number of them, fully justifies the expecta- 

 tion of an enormous further advance in this direction. In the time of Linnaeus 

 the existence in any past time of a species having no longer living representatives on 

 the earth, though perhaps the speculation of a few philosophical minds, had not 

 been received among the certainties of science, and at all events found no place in 

 the great work we are now considering. 



In the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturce we find the class Mammalia 

 divided into seven orders: I. Primates, II. Bruta, III. Ferce, IV. Glires, V. Pecora r 

 VI. Belluce, VII. Cete. These orders contain forty genera without any intermediate 

 subdivisions. The genera are again divided into species, of which the total num- 

 ber is 220. 



The first order, Primates, contains four genera: Homo, Simla, Lemur, and 

 Vespertilio. 



The vexed question of man's place in the zoological system was thus settled by 

 Linnaeus. He belongs to the class Mammalia, and the order Primates, the same 

 order which includes all known monkeys, lemurs, and bats : he differs only ge- 

 nerically from these animals. But then we must remember that the Linnaean genera 

 were not our genera, they correspond usually to what we call families, sometimes, 

 to entire orders. So that practically man's position is much the same as that to 

 which, after several vicissitudes, as his separation as an order by Blumenbach and 

 Cuvier, or as a subclass by Owen, he has returned in the systems of nearly all 

 the zoologists of the present day who treat of him as a subject for classifica- 

 tion upon zoological and not metaphysical grounds. 



Yet since the time of Linnaeus the whole science of Anthropology has been 

 created. There is certainly an attempt at the division of the species Homo sapiens 

 into six varieties in the Systema Natural, but it has scarcely any scientific basis. 

 Zoological Anthropology may be said to have commenced with Blumenbach, who, 

 it is interesting to recall as an evidence of the rapid growth of the science, was a 

 contemporary with most of us in this room, for he died as lately as 1840, although 

 his first work on the subject, ' De generis humani varietate nativa,' was published 

 three years before the death of Linnaeus, too late, however, to influence the work 

 we are now speaking of. The scientific study of the natural history of man is 

 therefore, we may say, but one century old. To what it has grown during that 

 time you are probably aware. Scarcely an important centre of civilisation in 

 the world but has a special Society devoted to its cultivation. It forms by itself a 

 special department of the Biological Section of our Association — a department of 

 such importance, that on this occasion no less distinguished a person than a former 

 most eminent President of the whole Association was thought fit to take charge of 

 it. From him you will doubtless hear what is its present scope, aim, and compass. 

 I need only remind you that except the one cardinal point of the zoological relation 

 of man to other forms of life, which Linnaeus appears to have appreciated with in- 

 tuitive perception, all else that you will now hear in that department was not 

 dreamt of in his philosophy. 



